Posts Tagged ‘pga championship’




McIlroy wins PGA Championship

Monday, August 13th, 2012

Rory McIlroy (Ed McDonald, Wikimedia Commons)

For the second time in his golfing career, Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland has won a major. On Sunday, he won the PGA Championship in South Carolina.

McIlroy shot a -6 Sunday to shoot a final round -13 and beat England’s David Lynn by eight strokes.

Despite a poor second round where McIlroy shot a +3 in extremely windy conditions, he was on his game and shot an amazing -16 on the three days where the weather was quite mild and calm.

Even though McIlroy has won his two majors (2011 U.S. Open and 2012 PGA Championship) by a combined total of 16 strokes (eight strokes each time), he won his two majors significantly differently. Last year at Congressional, he had a six stroke lead after the second round, and nobody caught him. This past weekend, he had significant challenges from Carl Pettersson of Sweden, Vijay Singh of Fiji, Tiger Woods of the United States and Ian Poulter of England. It wasn’t until mid-way through the final round on Sunday he destroyed the field by shooting a six-under that he moved away from the field.

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Bradley beats Dufner in a playoff at the PGA Championship

Sunday, August 14th, 2011

Keegan Bradley (Stan Badz, PGA Tour)

The quality of golf for the last hour of the PGA Championship one could say was below par.

Jason Dufner had a five stroke lead heading to the fifteenth hole before disaster struck. The 34 year-old Cleveland native bogeyed the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth holes, needing a playoff to win his first golf tournament on the PGA Tour. Dufner actually got his score into double digits at -11 before his tee shot went directly into the water on the fifteenth hole.

In his way was Woodstock, Vermont’s Keegan Bradley, who didn’t particularly play outstanding golf on Sunday either. Bradley, the nephew of LPGA Hall of Famer Pat Bradley, triple bogeyed the fifteenth himself, before getting birdies on the sixteenth and seventeenth to force Dufner into a par putt and playoff.

In the three-hole aggregate playoff, Bradley birdied the sixteenth, while Dufner birdied the eighteenth, but bogeyed the seventeenth, allowing Bradley to win by one.

This was Bradley’s second career win, as he defeated Ryan Palmer in a playoff at the Byron Nelson Classic in Texas in May. Bradley also becomes the first American since Phil Mickelson at the 2010 Masters to win a major. Non-Americans had won six straight events.

I’m wondering if all of the waggling Dufner does before hitting from the tee helps or hurts him. I’ve never seen one waggle so often on the PGA Tour before. Sadly, Dufner will now be compared to France’s Jean Van de Velde, who blew a three stroke lead on the 18th hole at the 1999 British Open before losing to England’s Paul Lawrie in a playoff.

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Steele and Dufner lead PGA Championship

Saturday, August 13th, 2011

Brendan Steele (Sam Greenwood, Getty Images)

The 2011 PGA Championship in Atlanta is becoming more and more like the 2003 PGA Championship at the Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York.

That year the no name Shaun Micheel defeated the no name Chad Campbell by two strokes at -4 to take the title.

In 2011, we have the names of Jason Dufner, Brendan Steele and Keegan Bradley, all Americans that are basically no names on the PGA Tour, leading the pack. Dufner, from Cleveland, is at -7 and at the age of 34, has never won on a PGA Tour event. Like Serena Williams in the WTA, Dufner is ranked 80th in the world, and making noise this weekend.

Dufner is tied at the top of the leaderboard with Steele, ranked 121st in the world. Unlike Dufner however, Steele has one career win, which came at the Valero Texas Open in April. Steele is a familiar name to Edmonton golf fans, as he finished second at the 2006 Telus Edmonton Open to American Stephen Gangluff.

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Weekend Sports Preview–August 13-14–PGA Championship & Rogers Cup

Saturday, August 13th, 2011

Keegan Bradley (Stan Badz, PGA Tour)

This year I have already introduced you to Keegan Bradley, the Byron Nelson Classic winner, and the 25 year-old rookie on the PGA Tour whose aunt is LPGA legend Pat Bradley. Now the native of Woodstock, Vermont is tied for the lead after round two of the PGA Championship at -5 with American Jason Dufner.

Bradley shot a dazzling 64 yesterday at the Atlanta Athletic Club, but because he finished on the front nine of the Highlands Course, he didn’t have a strong of a gallery on his final hole if he would have finished on the eighteenth hole.

Dufner, meanwhile, shot a 65, including an eagle on the fifth. Only once has Dufner, a native of Cleveland, finished in the top ten of a Major. He finished fifth at the 2010 PGA Championship in Wisconsin and is still looking for his first win on tour.

An American is in great position to win a major for the first time since Phil Mickelson won the 2010 Masters. Only two non-Americans (John Senden of Australia, tied for third at -4, and Andres Hansen of Denmark, tied for seventh at -3) are in the top ten.

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Random Friday Thoughts: NBA Europe, Woods Buckling, McCourt snipe!

Friday, August 12th, 2011

No Basketball Association

If the NBA were to read its horoscope for this month, it would probably look a little something like this:

“Much of your focus this month will be on personal possessions and whether or not they’ll still be around come the fall. Dependability and stability are key aspects when some planet lines up with some star, or something. Also: something about emotions.”

The league kicked off the lockout litigation recently by taking the players to court over certain aspects of the negotiations so far, which says to me that this thing is far from being resolved at this time and we are in for a long battle. As time passes too, we’re seeing more players becoming resigned to the fact that they should probably start looking for somewhere else to play!

The biggest mover and shaker so far has easily been Turkish club Besiktas, where the GM has been working away to build his own little temporary Miami Heat situation. They signed NJ Nets point guard Deron Williams, they’re working on getting OKC Thunder forward Kevin Durant into the mix and the Kobe Bryant rumors are still out there too, though not everyone is happy about that idea.

Then there’s Carlos Boozer, who says he “definitely” plans on playing overseas if there’s a lockout, there’s Dwyane Wade, who says he loves the game too much to not play this year, and then there’s Ron Artest…(After the jump: Is Tiger buckling under the pressure? Plus – a wonder strike from Paddy McCourt!) (more…)

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Stricker leads PGA Championship

Thursday, August 11th, 2011

Steve Stricker (Bing Images)

The golf world has been waiting a while for Steve Stricker to break through at a major.

On Thursday at the Atlanta Athletic Club it was Stricker’s time to shine.

The 44 year-old native of Edgerton, Wisconsin shot a dazzling 7-under 63 to take a two stroke lead on another Wisconsin native, Jerry Kelly of Madison after round one on Thursday.

Stricker has won twice already on tour this season– at the Memorial Tournament hosted by Jack Nicklaus in Ohio in June and at the John Deere Classic in Illinois in July.

The Atlanta Athletic Club played very easy for a major on Thursday. There were 22 players under par. It is interesting to compare the PGA Championship to the Canadian Open, where the lowest score posted by Sean O’Hair after four days at the Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club in Vancouver was only -4. Stricker is at -7 already.

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